After “Death Whisperer” became successful in its home country, it also appeared on Netflix for a world audience. But did that this story is allegedly based on a real story that truly happened in rural Thailand many years ago?
“Death Whisperer” also generally known as “Tee Yod” (தின் குட்டு) is a 2023 Thai supernatural horror film based on Kritanon's novel of the identical name. The film “Death Whisperer” directed by Thaweewat Wanta stars, amongst others: Nadech Kugimiya, Rattanawadee Wongthong, Denise Jelilcha Kapaun, Karj-bundit Jaidee, Peerakit Patcharabunyakiat, Arisara Wongchalee and Paramet Noi-um.
Set in a distant village in 1972, “Death Whisperer” tells the story of a farming family tormented by the mysterious death and illness of a young girl, Yam, in a distant village within the Kanchanaburi province.
They then encounter the ghostly woman in black several times and keep hearing a mysterious voice that feels like a prayer or unintelligible words resembling “Tee Yod…”. As a supernatural threat grows, Yak's eldest son, a former soldier, returns home to face the chilling forces and protect his family.
The story of the movie “Death Whisperer”
“The Death Whisperer” is predicated on a horror story posted on the Thai message board Pantip.com in late May 2015, which had over 2,000 comments and was shared 130,000 times. The original thread still looks up up to now, even though it has undergone some modifications. Check out your entire thread in Thai Here.
This story was first titled “Ghost fever… Let's hear my secrets” and was rewritten into a novel published in 2017 by the same author, Kittisak Kittiwirayanonta under the pen name “Kritanon”. A few months before the premiere of the film “Death Whisperer”, it was also repeated in a preferred ghost program on a radio station.
The term “Tee Yod”, derived from the mysterious woman within the black dress, stays enigmatic in each its meaning and linguistic origins. It has been suggested that it would be the Mon language in reference to the Ohma mantra, and there are lots of elements of Thai folklore behind the story itself. However, Ong Bunjoon, an authority in Mon art and culture, says the word has no meaning. What's more, he himself had never heard the word before.
It is alleged that Khun Kit's mother, through whom this story is told, was also unfamiliar with the source of the noise and the mantra sounding like Tee Yod, and although this continued throughout, it is probably going that the spelling of the word “Tee Yod” over time has turn out to be distorted. Even in the event that they didn't know what it meant, they insisted that they heard that decision from some being, over and yet again.
The True Story of the Ghost of Tee Yoda
So what really happened then? Although we weren't actually told this before it appeared on the web forum, the story follows “The Death Whisperer” quite closely. Krittanon, the writer of Tee Yod, claims that it’s a true story that happened to his mother's family up to now when she was 15 or 16 years old in a province within the Central Region. And while speculation continues on the Internet, the actual location stays a mystery.
His mother had many siblings, and daily, for hours, they crossed rice fields and wild areas to get to highschool because they lived within the countryside and were a part of a farming family. On the way in which there was a tree with an old picket shrine that they’d to pass by, and his mother raised her hand in praise each time they passed it.
One evening, as they passed by the shrine, they saw a lady standing next to it. She gave the impression to be middle-aged, had shoulder-length hair, and wore black clothes. Although the ladies didn't care much on the time, their mother says the lady stared at them with a smile.
Her younger sister Yam fell ailing that evening, and the following morning the situation didn’t improve and she or he had to remain home. During the night, Yam began behaving strangely, she was scared and screamed to her mother that somebody was coming for her to harm her. When they took her to the doctor, they said it was the flu and it might go away. However, this didn’t occur.
They then called in one other shaman, a more traditional one. He began administering herbs, initially disbelieving when she insisted that somebody was attempting to hurt her and claimed it was only a dream.
However, the shaman advised to not let strangers in because their clan was coming to go to. Then Yam saw her again, the old woman standing outside their door, still smiling. But this time the doctor saw her too and began shouting at her, telling her to not smile and never come back.
The smiling woman walked away smiling and the family was shocked. Wasn't this all a fever nightmare? The shaman asked in the event that they knew this woman, they replied no.
The shaman then said that the old woman was probably used as some sort of vessel, distorted and unnatural, and if she ever got here back, they’d must chase her away. Under no circumstances could she enter the home. Could she be possessed by something evil?
Then strange things began happening in the home. Yam began to sleepwalk, her fever subsided, but her personality one way or the other… modified. She didn't discuss with relations for long periods of time, refused to go to highschool, and stared at her siblings as they tried to sleep, which terrified them. She had the identical strange smile the old lady had given them, and it scared all of them.
All this time, the daughter within the family was behaving strangely, they began to listen to this sound, almost like a prayer or a mantra repeated at night, although nobody was in sight. The mantra sounded much like Tee Yod.
One night, their parents needed to exit of town for a marriage, they usually left the care of the remainder of their siblings to their oldest brother, who had returned from the military. At night they heard laughter and whistling in the home and the identical mantra being repeated over and yet again. Tee Yod… Tee Yod…
The older brothers were outside and the younger sisters were contained in the house, listening as they fired at a lady standing still in the dead of night, which could only be seen after they shined a flashlight at her. The old woman appeared every night, coming closer and closer, seen only by the sunshine of her flashlight, leaving only footprints within the grass. Even after they shot at her, she still got here back.
Now she began coming even throughout the day, and in the future when her parents got here back, they found her standing over Yam in her room. Her mother threw a bucket of water on her, screaming that she had to depart the home. The old woman agreed, smiling her creepy smile, and left.
They brought back the identical shaman and when he asked Yam how she was feeling, she replied that she was not Yam. He then told his parents that he suspected that Yam was being eaten by some type of ghost or ghoul of a lady who lived near there and that he had heard stories from others about this woman wearing black.
When they visited the elderly lady, they found her lying on a mat with a shawl covering her face and her family round her. She was dead, covered in bruises and cuts.
However, the death of the old lady was not the top of the strange things that were happening. And the identical mantra was whispered at night, and the family had to guard themselves from the danger lurking outside the home as a way to get inside. They heard the voices of relations who pretended to be them to open the door.
The haunting continued until they found the source of the bamboo bush that appeared when the old woman appeared. When they cut it up, it turned out to be something rotten and slimy, just like the organs hidden within the bamboo fields across the house. People or animals, who knows. They burned the whole lot.
This, combined with taking her to a bigger hospital, appeared to help for a couple of days. They began to ponder whether her pain might need a physical origin and never the paranormal theories that had been plaguing the family in recent weeks. However, they determined that her organs were severely damaged.
That was until in the future within the hospital when the strange symptoms that had been consuming Yam returned and this time she didn’t get better. And within the hospital corridor they saw a smiling woman wearing the identical dark clothes.
The enduring mystery of Tee Yoda
Yam never returned from the hospital and sadly died from her injuries, and rumors spread about what happened. What really happened remained a mystery, and maybe the reality can be much more blurred after the discharge of “Death Whisperer”. What disease did Yam really suffer from, who was the old lady who got here to their house and what things did they find within the bamboo field?
And what Tee Yod really meant and whether it had any reference to the strange temple where she first saw the old woman, which based on the writer was eventually destroyed.
Many answers won’t ever be given, especially for the reason that writer himself doesn’t know all of the answers.
Bibliography:
The topic of ghost fever… come and hearken to my mysterious stories – Pantip
Image Source: Pixabay.com
